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Suppose that 12 people enter an elevator on the 1st floor of a 24 floor building. Assume that all 12 independently pick a floor (above the first) randomly to get off on. What is the expected number offloors no one gets off on?

User Babr
by
4.5k points

1 Answer

5 votes

Answer:

∑E(x
_(i)) = 13.49167 floors

Explanation:

The expected number of floors no one get off = ∑E(x
_(i)) where i is from 0 to 23

and E(x
_(i)) = ∑x
_(i)P(x
_(i))

here x
_(i) is the indicator of floor where no one gets off, its value is 0 when atleast one person get off on its floor and 1 when when no one gets off.

Now,

P(x
_(i)=1) = (22/23)¹²

P(x
_(i)=0) = [1-(22/23)¹²]

Now,

E(x
_(i)) = ∑x
_(i)P(x
_(i)) = 0* [1-(22/23)¹²] + 1*(22/23)¹² =0.586594704

For total number of floors where no one gets off

∑E(x
_(i)) = E(x₁)+E(x₂)+E(x₃)........................+E(x₂₃)

∑E(x
_(i)) = 23*0.586594704

∑E(x
_(i)) = 13.49167 floors

User Martijn Van Hoof
by
4.0k points